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Too Much Choice

This has happened to me. Maybe it's because I don't normally do the grocery shopping. I've gone into the supermarket or drug store for a tube of toothpaste and found myself confronted with three or four dozen varieties of toothpaste. Why? It's a fairly simple substance. We use it every day, hopefully twice. So why are there so many to choose from? We've got cream paste, gel, gel with sparkles, whitening toothpaste, some with baking soda, others for sensitive gums. There's toothpastes for kids, natural toothpastes, and all come in various flavors. Once we figure out what brand and flavor we want, then we have to figure out what size we need. Travel? Economy? Family sized?

My wife can pick out toothpaste in a few seconds. She knows what she wants--her criteria is that the toothpaste be natural. Some people buy products based on what their parents bought. Of course, when I was a kid, there weren't quite so many choices.

Toothpaste is a fairly minor decision and yet, it illustrates how many choices we're confronted with every day. What car we drive, which cell phone providers we use, the brands we eat, wear and use. . . `

Barry Schwartz, professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College, has written a book called, 'The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less-How The Culture of Abundance Robs us of Satisfaction'. It is a very interesting look at how the ever expanding amount of 'choice' we have in every dimension of our lives is eroding the simple pleasures that used to be omnipresent.

This is important especially as it relates to our professions, the products we purchase and the services we use. How many of us are there out in the world? Are we one in a million or one of a million? How does your existence simplify the life of your affluent prospects or clients?

We've been told that the goal of choice is to liberate us and give us more control over our lives, to give us autonomy and a sense of individuality. Mr. Schwartz suggests '. . . (A)s the number of choices keeps growing, negative aspects of having a multitude of options begin to appear. As the number of choices grows further, the negatives escalate until we become overloaded.'

As people who sell a product or service, we need to keep in mind that there are a multitude of similar products or service providers out there and that what makes us special is that, as persuaders, we are able to reach into the core of our prospects and clients to discover their specific key, their unique combination of values and criteria. When we establish rapport, elicit criteria, and establish ourselves as 'the answer', there is no need for this unbearable overload to occur in the minds of our prospects.

Schwartz writes of the political philosopher Isaiah Berlin, who beautifully described the continuum of towards and away in his distinction between 'negative liberty' and 'positive liberty'. He says, "Negative liberty is 'freedom from'-freedom from constraint, freedom from being told what to do by others. Positive liberty is 'freedom to'-the availability of opportunities to be the author of your life and to make it meaningful and significant."

Wow! A better description of the 'towards/away' continuum doesn't exist. Do we see in our prospects the desire to be free from constraints? How can we show them that our product or service is the answer to this? Do we have a towards person who wants to take in all the amazing opportunities our products and services have to offer? In what ways to do you see the paradox of choice at play in your business life?

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Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies. This article is available as a unique content article with free reprint rights.

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